Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Ahhh, I feel like I've been waiting forever to do this! I decided that from now on, I'm going to give away my finished patterns instead of putting them back in the stash... unless they're part of a book or magazine that I still want to keep, of course. :p Life is too short (and the stash is too big) to stitch the same thing twice! And what's the fun in hoarding anyway?

So, I'm giving away the four patterns I've finished this year! Here's how they look all finished:

Some notes:
- Tree of Hope has some pencil markings on the key, and is a bit worn along the fold lines. I definitely recommend making a working copy for stitching.
- Bumble Bee does not include the button. Sorry, I used it. ;)
- No threads or other materials are included for any of these. They're just the charts.

And the giveaway info:
- Please be a follower. If you have a blog, leave me the link so I can follow you too!
- Anyone in the world can enter. I'll ship anywhere! :)
- Comment with your choice of ONE chart you'd like to win.
- If more than one person chooses a chart, I'll select the winner with random.org.
- I'll post the winners on March 10!

It feels good to finish something... it's been a while! Here's Cherry Hill by Country Cottage Needleworks, finished up last night while watching a few episodes of Monk on Netflix. :p

The border really makes this piece. I had my doubts about the border until I started stitching it, then I could see how necessary it is. The tree is my favorite part of this design, though. I just love the shape of the leaves and the two different greens in there.

Monday, February 27, 2012

As I thought, finishing Titania by the end of the month is not going to be possible. :p But I'm very pleased with my progress, though her wings are already driving me crazy and I haven't done much of them! She'll be taking a rest for a week or two while I work on other projects. I need a break from pink and yellow!

If you noticed the tiny splotch in the middle, your eyes are pretty good! I've decided to stitch her skin over one, so she's been recharted and a very small start has been made on her arm. It's not as scary as I thought it would be, but it's going to take a lo-o-o-o-o-ong time!

So I think I'll wrap up Cherry Hill this week. It's almost done after last night's addition of grass and tree. Just a little more to go in the tree, then a cherry in the upper right and the sweet little border. Shouldn't take me more than a few days. :)

We'll see if I can be friends with Titania again after this is finished. :p

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

It's been forever since I've posted an update on Titania, so not all of this is from IHSW. I'm not THAT fast. :p

There's not much to see when compared to my older photos, though, because I completely finished the bottom and it's all rolled up! It's sad, but the leaves took a huge chunk of time because there's so many colors in each one! The rest of her dress was a breeze, though, except for the purple ribbon and all the color changes.

I was pretty excited about getting this far until I realized how BIG her wings are. Suddenly I feel like I'm only halfway done...

And I wasn't going to start Butterfly Garden, but... I just couldn't help myself. The phlox started driving me nuts after all those tiny lazy daisies, though! I'll come back to it once I get tired of yellow and white. :p

Friday, February 10, 2012

I've finished as much as I can of Octopus Treasure Cave part one! I'm still waiting on the bead pack, and I'm missing the perle that goes around the border and the blackwork waves. I'm sure those will arrive long before part two is out. :)

Again, sorry for the bad pictures... the dark fabric seems to be forcing me to use the flash, and some of the colors are very light and they get washed out. Doesn't help that it's a gloomy day, so no help from the sunlight!

This is the full part. The top and bottom (purple) were originally charted for a blue/green color, but I chose purple instead as the color I was subbing for the blue/green silk was very dark and got lost in the fabric. I also completely changed the blackwork pattern on the top to work better with the dark fabric and purple thread.

And my sad attempts at getting closeups of a few specialty stitches. Each quarter of the border has a different stitch, and it was fun to have a lot of variety!

I'm really looking forward to the next part! For now, it's back to Titania. :) Or I might be naughty and start Butterfly Garden...

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

How did an entire month pass already? I feel like the new year's just started! Guess it's time for the WIPocalypse already, though... so here we go!

I've been working on Octopus Treasure Cave since the beginning of the month, and I've completed the main portion of the border! These pictures are terrible, by the way... can't seem to get good lighting for the dark fabric, so you'll have to survive with some icky flash shots. The colors are a lot nicer in real life, I just can't show them properly yet!

Closeup of the blackwork (purplework?) on the bottom. It's actually supposed to be a green/blue thread, but the one I'm using to sub for that one is too dark and it blends into the fabric. The purple looks really nice, though! I might go back and take out the blue blackwork on the right side of the border and do all four sides in purple instead...

I made some progress on Titania as well, but no pic this time. She's all folded up and put away nicely while Octopus is on the scroll bars. Next time. :)

Thursday, February 02, 2012

The first part of Octopus Treasure Cave was released yesterday! I hopped right to it and managed a measly 1/4 of the border, not counting the beaded or blackwork areas. :) It doesn't look like much yet, but I'll keep going today.

Sorry for the awful picture, it's too early for a daylight photo and the flash washed things out a bit.

This is being done on PTP Phantom with a special thread conversion known as "the stuff I already had." I did order a few threads but I'd say about 85% is from stash. Go me. :)

I must say that working on dark fabric has been an experience! I spent a lot of time obsessively counting and frogging at first, but I seemed to get the hang of it later on. My greatest fear is that things won't line up once I get back around to the beginning.... :p

Not sure that working this on the scroll frame is a good idea as the tension isn't that great and I really need the fabric taut so I can find the holes more easily. Plus I'm getting a serious crick in my neck from being hunched over so I can see the light I put behind the fabric! I might put this on the ol' q-snap for a while. Might need to get a 14" square snap so I can do the entire thing on it like a cheater. :)